Day 4: Lovere-Toscolano Maderno (93 km, 360 m uphill)
After two workdays in Lovere at Lago d’Iseo, I have to say that this was not the best place to stay for three nights because (a) west bank and surrounded by high mountains means that the sun is gone quite early, and (b) it’s September and all the tourists are gone. So the place was quite dead in the evenings. I did find an alright pizza restaurant though where I had dinner the last two nights.
Today, I continued cycling. This was my longest day so far with 93 kilometres. First I circled Lago d’Iseo, and then I went via Brescia towards Lago di Garda.
In Brescia, I stopped for a lunch break in an idyllic Lidl parking lot. Descending towards Lago di Garda was very nice. I’m staying here for one night in Toscolano Maderno in a very nice hotel.
Tomorrow, I’m going to go around the whole lake and stay in Peschiera in the southeast corner before I continue towards Padua on Sunday.
It was raining all night in Bergamo, but the weather report said that it should stop raining in the morning and get sunny later today. After a rest day/work day yesterday (I work every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and cycle the remaining days), I had to check out of my apartment in Bergamo at 10:30. When I left, it was still raining slightly. I put my rain jacket on for a bit, men packed it away soon after because there was really only slight rain and a bit too warm under the jacket.
At 12 o’clock, I reached Lago d’Iseo and took a short break for a ciabatta and some water. Then, I continued along the west bank of the lake. Unfortunately, it started raining quite heavily after a while. But since I only had around one hour left at that point, I did not care too much.
Here in Lovere, I have an apartment again, which was a bit difficult to find. But after ringing my host who does not speak any English, and after some messaging on WhatsApp, we figured out that I was indeed standing in front of his house. After I took a warm shower and changed to dry clothes, the sun did actually come out again.
Today, I’ll have a pasta dinner at home and save some money. I did buy a Sicilian Nero d’Avola though to accompany the dinner.
The next two days will be work days. Then from Friday to Sunday, I have three days in a row with distances between ninety and one-hundred kilometres. So I will find out whether I am well not trained or not (which I sincerely doubt).
Yesterday, I left Como around 11 o’clock, took a small detour to the lake and then started my way towards Bergamo. The first part was a steep climb I knew from last year, but thanks to the croissant and coffee from breakfast, it was not too much of a challenge. When I arrived at the top, I took a short break at a bus stop to drink water. I also took of my helmet, and when I did that, I saw something small and white fall down and disappeared under the rear wall of the bus stop. Behind it was a pretty steep hill. I first wondered what it could have been, but didn’t come up with an answer. So, I told myself, probably it wasn’t anything important, and a few minutes later I continued my ride. After one minute though, the light of truth suddenly struck me: It was my AirPod that I have in my ear for navigation. That was quite essential and expensive. So, I turned around. Now, the Airpod seemed to be on this steep hill behind the bus stop. And around the bus stop, separating the hill from the road, was a thick, thorny hedge. But I needed my AirPod back. So I put on some jeans, climbed over/through the hedge and found it indeed where I expected it. I came back a bit scratchy and itchy, but it was worth it.
From there, I continued Lago Pusiano and Lago di Annone. At one point, I was directed towards a motorway, but according to the sign, there was a parallel road that cyclists could take. Unfortunately though, this road was a construction site and blocked with a fence. There were already four other cyclists, an Italian and a German or Swiss couple, standing in front of it with question marks above their heads. Finally, the Italian guy said: Well, there is a small hole in the fence, so we can try. And we all agreed that it would be better than the motorway in any case. So, we lifted our bikes and me also the luggage through this small whole and climbed through. The road was partly a rideable gravel road, and partly, we had to wheel or carry the bike. Parts of this road were also flooded, so even though this part was not long, it took us quite a while. But eventually, we reached the end of this road construction and could continue.
Now, my trip was supposed to be a bit more than 60 kilometres. After 45 kilometres already, I started to get cramps in my thighs. I had to take a lot of stretching breaks and take it very slowly, but I finally reached Bergamo. I even found a Decathlon store here which was open on Sundays. Now I have a new phone mount for my bike – the previous one was damaged when I reassembled my bike at the airport.
In Bergamo, I will stay for two nights. Today is a working day. Tomorrow, I will continue towards Lago d’Iseo.
Hello from Como in Bella Italia where I just finished the first day of this year’s bicycle adventure. I’m planning to go from Milano to Istanbul, while working remotely three days per week, meaning that four days per week are bike days. Inshallah, I’ll be in Istanbul by mid or end November.
This trip was originally planned together with my friend Udo. But due to unforeseen circumstances he could not join the start, but will join asap.
Today, I took the plane from Oslo to Milano Malpensa. The trip to Oslo airport was quite relaxed – I ordered a taxi to the central station and took the Flytoget train because it’s more relaxed with a huge bike box. On the train, I facepalmed myself when I found out that I had packed my bike lock, but had forgotten the keys.
After landing at Malpensa, all went smoothly first, too. I got my luggage and bike quickly and had it reassembled within one hour. The problem was that my mobile charging contact has stopped working. So when I plugged in the charger, it would not charge. Shortly after leaving the airport with low battery, the phone went black. Now I had to navigate to Como just looking at the position of the sun and bypassing wild geese on their way to Africa. Or as a better alternative, I figured, I should try to buy a wireless charger because it’s only the Lightning contact that doesn’t work. After visiting many stores, I finally found a Gigante hypermarket, and it was so gigante that I found both a phone charger and a new bicycle lock.
So, then I charged my phone a bit so that I could navigate again. And finally, after darkness had already settled over Lago di Como, I arrived in Como. The hotel is alright. The fresh pasta and the red wine were delicious.
The morning started with rain again, so I didn’t hurry with my breakfast and checked out at ten from my B&B in Glückstadt. By the time I left, the sun was shining again and the streets were almost dry, but after ten minutes, I got into a heavy rain shower. Because I was told that there were some bridges ahead that only open once per hour, I continued anyway and got pretty wet. When I reached those bridges, I got the impression though that they are always open to cross except for once per hour when they open for boats.
What was more of a challenge than the rain and the bridges was the amount of sheep poop. My fluffy friends had been going on the toilet everywhere. As there was normally one road behind the dyke and one in front of the dyke, I often had to make a call when there were crossings, which side was less shitty. And sometimes, I had to turn around because I made the wrong call and ended up in places where the road was technically blocked by ankle-deep crap.
On the positive side, I head tailwind and made good progress. Around twelve, I reached the ship welcome point in Stade. There is a restaurant with a terrace there, and they announce every ship that arrives in Hamburg or leaves Hamburg and inform about the size, the nationality and so on. I sat inside, comfortably dry when another shower hit, and continued after one cappuccino.
Half an hour later, I reached the border of Hamburg. I continued down to the Elbe river again (had to take my skates off at one point because the road was too steep and wet) and proceeded towards the stairs’ quarter (Treppenviertel) in Blankenese. Here, I somehow missed my planned end spot, which I noticed two kilometres later. I then considered to continue towards the fish market, but got (a) stopped by a gravel path, and (b) hit by another rain shower. So instead I went back to Blankenese, took off my skates there, and enjoyed a beer.
As expected, the day started with heavy rainfall. I gave myself some extra time for breakfast and checked out first at ten o’clock. I took a bus to Cuxhaven centre and enjoyed another coffee at the pier. Then, around an hour later, the sun came out, the streets started to dry, and I boarded the train to Otterndorf where I had stopped skating yesterday.
The first ten or fifteen kilometres I skated next to a Bundesstraße with a lot of traffic. There was a separate bike lane, so for skating it was fine, but the traffic was a bit annoying. For the second half of the day, I was mainly on small roads between fields with no traffic at all, but with a road surface that wasn’t always great. In addition, where there were trees, the roads were not dry and partly very soapy-slippery.
The last few kilometres towards Wischhafen, from where I wanted to take the Elbe ferry to Glückstadt, were next to a bigger road again with a bike lane that was pretty damaged and that slowed me down a bit. Two kilometres from the ferry harbour, it started raining again. In addition, I noticed cars getting off the ferry coming towards me, so I hurried up a bit to catch this ferry, which I barely managed.
Just before reaching the other river bank, the rain became heavier, and the streets were very wet. So I decided to call it a day for skating and walked the four kilometres to Glückstadt. (Surprisingly, there was no bus from the ferry to the centre.)
The town looks quite nice, founded by Danish king Kristian IV. I just passed through the centre on the way to my B&B. Ironically, the sun was shining again when I reached my accommodation. In a bit, I will go back to the town centre for a drink, before preparing for my last and final stage to Hamburg tomorrow. Looking forward very much to reach my destination.
At the Elbe river – Hamburg just forty kilometres away upstream
I should have taken the bus out of Bremerhaven. I considered it yesterday because the satellite pictures looked like there were no good bike lanes out of the city centre and past the harbour. I knew that behind the harbour was the dyke and probably a good road to skate on. But the part towards the harbour turned out to be tricky. First, I had to turn around a couple of times because Google Maps sent me over roads that ended in gravel. Then, there were roads that led to the harbour which were not allowed for cyclists (and skaters) and the parallel pedestrian/cycle paths were unskateable. So I made a detour through the harbour which was not too bad – good roads and not too much traffic. The whole process took me about an hour though, so I was glad when I reached the dyke.
From there, it was a pleasant skate towards Cuxhaven. Only the last few kilometres were a hassle again due to gravel roads and/or no bicycle lanes.
I reached Cuxhaven already around twelve o’clock and was lucky to be able to check into my room already. Since I still felt fresh and the weather forecast predicted rain for the next day, I decided to skate one more hour in the afternoon as well.
So, I had a quick lunch at a Chinese restaurant, put my skates on again and skated twenty more kilometres towards Otterndorf. That way, I can start from Otterndorf tomorrow and have to cover only between thirty-five and forty kilometres instead on fifty-five. If it rains the whole morning, I can still manage to do this in the afternoon.
After taking the train back to Cuxhaven, I’m now on the bus back to my guesthouse. There I’ll take a shower and then go for a well-deserved dinner after skating more than seventy kilometres today.
As I wrote yesterday, the ferry that I wanted to take over the Jade Bight, is not operated on Mondays, so I had to depart on a not so little detour around the bay today. First though, my hotel had an excellent breakfast in the café that belongs to the hotel. With this energy boost, I left Wilhelmshaven at half past nine.
The weather forecast predicted thunderstorms from four in the afternoon, so I thought that I had enough time to reach Nordenham from where the Weser ferry would take me to Bremerhaven.
After two hours though, I noticed for the first time some very dark clouds above me. Shortly after, a heavy rain shower started, luckily in the exact moment when I passed by a little tavern. So I took a prolonged lunch break there (cake for lunch is a concept which is underrated). I also had very good entertainment there because a group of cyclists tried to tease the slightly unfriendly owner, but she always had the quicker responses.
After about an hour, the road started drying enough so that I continued. I got very close to Nordenham when the next rain shower took me by surprise. And this one was worse than the first, so I realised that it was unlikely for the roads to dry again in time for me to reach the ferry before the actual thunderstorms were predicted. So I took a local bus to the ferry harbour instead.
I did not make it dry to my hotel either because before I got there, the thunderstorms started. So all in all, it was a very wet afternoon and evening in Bremerhaven. On the positive side, I had some delicious surf and turf for dinner, and it seems like the sky is clearing up again now.
Tomorrow, I plan to go to Cuxhaven – forty kilometres if I go the direct way or a bit longer if I follow the dyke route, which I probably will if the weather looks fine.
Lucky me got company over the weekend. Therefore, Saturday was another rest day or let’s call it: alternative activities day. We took a ferry to Langeoog, rented bikes there and explored the island on two wheels. We were very lucky with the weather and enjoyed cycling in the dunes. Our highlight of the day was watching some seals. Back on mainland, we enjoyed a delicious fish dinner in a harbour restaurant Bensersiel.
After breakfast this morning (Sunday), we took a car ride to Jever and Neuharlingersiel and walked around a bit there, before heading back to our hotel so that I could continue my trip there.
It was a bit hard to get started after driving around half a day and due the strong wind we had – “steife Brise” (stiff breeze) from the South. The first six and a half kilometres, I had to go south, so they were really tough. After that, I went mostly eastwards, and coming from the side, the wind wasn’t that much of a problem anymore.
The route was not so nice today as I was often skating next to bigger roads with lots of weekend traffic. So, today it was just nice to reach my destination, Wilhelmshaven, after three hours. I went for dinner and walked around a bit, but collapsed quite early on my hotel bed.
Tomorrow, I wanted to take a ferry here to cross the Jade bay. However, the ferry is not operated on Mondays, so I have to skate around the bay instead, which adds some annoying thirty kilometres to the trip. Well, I have the whole day, so I’ll go for it.
This morning, I didn’t have breakfast included in my overnight stay. So I walked to a nearby bakery and had breakfast there instead, including a piece of rhubarb cake because I figured, why not.
I had to choose between two routes that Google Maps suggested: one along the dyke and one a kilometre or so behind the dyke. The latter one didn’t seem to have a bicycle lane according to the satellite view on Google Maps, so I chose the dyke option although I was uncertain about the road conditions there.
The first two kilometres or so were literally on the dyke, on the seaside, with a heavy sideways slope. And to make it more fun, a flock of sheep had prepared a slalom course for me with the sheep being the obstacles. After fifteen minutes, I decided that life must be better on the other side of the dyke, and indeed there was a better road there.
For a while there was a paved road, but eventually it turned into the best tarmac you can imagine and I could skate on highway-like conditions for most of the rest of the day.
I took a short break in Nessmersiel and enjoyed a cold malt beer there (typical German non-alcoholic drink) and then continued towards Dornumersiel. In Bensersiel, I wanted to stop for another coffee or so, but the sky looked pretty grey and first raindrops were falling, so I decided to rather continue with the last kilometres towards my hotel. Unfortunately, my room is not ready yet, so I wait in the hotel bar and have time to write my blog. Next blog entry probably Sunday evening.
